Voter ID Flap "NOT" Baseless

Wednesday

Aug 28, 2013 at 11:42 AM

I'd like to clear up a few facts for the writer of the letter "Voter ID just baseless squawking". It's not just about showing a photo ID, which is the only point being made in this letter and, we're not all "parrots that repeat what they hear." The concern is about shortening the early voting days from 17 to 10 in which in 2012, 56 percent of voters who went to the polls for the general election cast a ballot during the early voting period. (Ever hear of the long lines of voters on Election Day in Florida because of abbreviated early voting?)
This sweeping law now requires strict government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. No student ID's will be accepted even though they are issued by the state colleges and universities. No out-of-state driver's licenses will be accepted (why not it's a government issued form of identification), cuts the number of early voting days by a week, eliminates same-day voter registration during the early voting period, and makes it easier while expanding the influence of unregulated corporate money in state elections. Oh; and hypothetically speaking, let's just say I was injured in an auto accident and hospitalized in Rockingham County and discharged on the last day of election, I wouldn't be able to vote there. Why not in this day and age of technology? It should be made easier to vote rather than placing obstacles at every turn. Trying to understand the mindset of this new state legislature is more than obvious, it is blatant hypocrisy. Fred Allen Leland